Leland Vittert wrote Born Lucky and did a News Nation special about how he overcame the limitations of autism. He went from being a bullied school kid considered weird by teachers to an anchor at two major news networks. To us the lesson of his story is that expectations matter. His parents would not accept his limitations, and instilled in him the values of hard work and striving to meet his goals. At the same time, they provided ample love and support, helping him work through the challenges he encountered. The message to managers is that you should support neurodivergent employees with high expectations for their success. That means investing in their development and encouraging them to strive and grow.
What Is Neurodiversity
Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that refers to the natural fluctuations in how individuals think and experience their surroundings. Neurodivergent individuals are typically diagnosed with and/or identify as having one or more of a subset of disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). These include, but are not limited to, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), dyslexia, dyspraxia, Tourette’s syndrome, and dyscalculia. It is estimated that up to 20% of individuals are neurodivergent.
Often, the emphasis for individuals diagnosed with these and/or related conditions has been on their deficits—those things that they cannot do well. However, the key goal of the neurodiversity movement is to move the discussion from a deficit perspective to a strength-based one. While neurodivergent individuals have weaknesses, just like any employee, they also have strengths—again, just like any employee. Therefore, the neurodiversity approach highlights this perspective so that society views neurodivergent individuals as a complete person and not solely through a disability lens.
The Importance of High Expectations
In the 1960’s, researchers became interested in how expectations can explain why some people perform successfully and others do not. Martin Seligman and Steven Maier found that when a person believes that success is outside of their control, they will stop exerting effort and resign themselves to what they believe is inevitable failure. They later coined this phenomenon, learned helplessness, to explain how people learn through repeated negative situations that they are unable to be successful.
In the same vein, Robert Rosenthal demonstrated that teacher expectations translated into student performance. If teachers were led to believe that certain students, chosen at random, were highly talented, those students wound up performing better in class. His explanation is that teachers, perhaps without realizing it, gave more attention and support to those they believed would most benefit from it. In other words, teacher expectations created a self-fulfilling prophesy or Pygmalion effect.
Both the concepts of learned helplessness and the self-fulfilling prophecy work similarly in the workplace. Managers will often positively target those they believe have high potential, ignoring the rest. Too often neurodivergent employees can be overlooked due to low expectations. When neurodivergent individuals do not receive encouragement, they will likely give up and assume they are incapable. This is unfortunate because many neurodivergent employees could learn if given encouragement and feedback.
Support Neurodivergent Employees with High Expectations
As companies increase hiring of neurodivergent individuals, there can be a tendency to assume that they have deficits and might be good at one particular thing. This is certainly true for some autistic employees who excel at highly-detailed tasks and pattern recognition. It would be a mistake to stereotype all autistic employees, assuming for example, that they aren’t good team players. The lesson of Born Lucky is that when others hold high expectations, even those with serious skill deficits can often overcome them and be successful.
For managers who have neurodivergent direct reports, it is important to keep several things in mind.
- Everyone is different. Two people with the same neurodivergent label are not going to have the same skill set or potential.
- Ask your employee about themselves—their goals and aspirations. Just like your other direct reports, they too will have strengths and weaknesses.
- Work with the employee to set goals. Do not set goals for them, but rather let the employee take the lead.
- Don’t make assumptions. Someone’s label doesn’t define them. Given a chance people can rise to the occasion.
- Everyone deserves a chance to reach their full potential.
In conclusion, managers should support neurodivergent employees with high expectations because it acts as an important and not often discussed form of social support. A manager’s high expectations creates a “win-win” situation that benefits not only that the employee, but the organization and society more broadly.
Image generated by DALL-E 4. Prompt “image of a manager mentoring an employee and holding them to a high standard. Maybe hand on the mentee’s shoulder and looking up on the distance. The right hand image in wider aspect. have the manager pointing into the distance.”
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